Thanks again everyone for the tips and suggestions. It helped a great deal. I took the tank back to the shop where 0327 is today. Below is a pic of it sitting on a stand behind 0327. Just need to glue the protective matting on the top and reinstall. I was hoping to do that today but we just didn't have the time.
My buddy who runs the shop has been super busy, so not much progress lately. But when I go back in to reinstall the tank I'll try to push him a little on the schedule.
I am in the SF Bay Area until Thursday; when I get home I'll post a pic of the primer/paint combo material brand I used.
When I think of how long these restorations take I remember a TV show where they had a yard full of rusting hulks and they'd go pick one out and restore it to sell. No matter what they picked it seemed like in two weeks they had it looking showroom new. And claimed they made a profit selling it...

Here's a pic of the paint I used to restore the fuel tank. Rustoleum Satin Nickel, got it at Home Depot. It is both primer and paint. As I posted earlier, I took care to get all the dirt and grime off, then hand-sanded and steel-wooled all the rust off. Finally, I used sandpaper to rough up the surface to get good adhesion. Gave it two coats. Even my friend at the body shop said it looked good.

I just got the door glass channel rubber, so I'll take that in next week and see if we have time to reinstall the fuel tank. I'm hoping we make some good progress now, but I doubt it will be ready for the Ripon show in October.

The old adage of restorations taking twice as long and costing twice as much as expected still holds true. It was a minor miracle when I got mine through the body shop in the first six months of 2005 which left me three months to complete assembly before its debut at Ripon. I worked on it at max pace during all my free time and it still ended up still being at 95% done when the show rolled around but what the heck. I showed it anyway and then took my time with the remaining work over the winter. Have fun with yours and just do things right and don't worry too much about schedules.

Went by the shop today and got my hands dirty. Reinstalled the fuel tank. The hardest thing about that was trying not to scuff up the bottom of the tank while getting it in place and the straps on. The plastic shield helped out a lot.

The trunk is now painted as is most of the rear end of the car. I am told the progress will accelerate now as a previous (big) project is out and the Mustang is project #1. Next week I'll take the front and rear bumper bars to be sandblasted along with some front end parts.

Greetings, everyone! Awful hot here with a week around 100 degrees or above. I visited 0327 and am pleased to report paint is going on. Most of the parts I had sandblasted have been painted. The inside of the hood, trunk lid, the inside of the trunk, and the back end of the veh have been painted. Next are the doors, then they'll get reassembled. I got all new rubber for them so the fit should be good.

I have attached a few pics: Inside trunk lid stripped, then painted. Inside of the hood painted, and finally the back end of the veh with fuel tank reinstalled and paint on the outside.

I think I'll bring the spotlights and install kits in and have my buddy install them. He needs to paint the shells satin anyway, and I'd rather have him tangle with them. I don't want to be scratching the new paint.